User blog:Athena Hawkins/SONIC THE HEDGEHOG REVIEWS
Yo, so I've become so bored that I'm resorting to reviewing all of the Sonic the Hedgehog games that I've played. These won't be more than just reviews, although I downloaded a ton of Fire Emblem Awakening character portraits to personificate the different aspects of my reviews. These won't be too long and, for the first time, don't use a "rating system" from me. I just judge if i'm "Satisfied", "Neutral", or "Angered" at the end of a review. My reviews go over Story, Presentation, Controls, Gameplay, Mechanics, Boss Battles, Difficulty, Music, Replayability, and End-Game Appeal. The "FINALE" bit of the review represents my overall thoughts and also concludes which target audience would be interested in the game... REVIEW: Sonic the Hedgehog CD Oh. Well, hi there! It's been... a while, huh? Sonic CD is often described as either the absolute pinnacle of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games or as the hidden gemstone in the collection. Released on the ill-fated Sega CD, an add-on for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive that had poor sales, it didn't receive much exposure to Sonic fans as a whole until it was ported to later, much more popular platforms. A lot of people, including myself, were first introduced to the game through its fitting inclusion in the Sonic Gems Collection title, which is filled with rare, not-so-popular Sonic adventures. Not only was the game critically acclaimed, but it received lots of attention due to its extensive usage of time travel, its soundtrack controversies, the debuts of famed character Metal Sonic and Amy Rose, and of course that secret Satanic imagery... MatPat please don't get on that I was joking. Sonic CD has series antagonist Dr. Eggman (known as Dr. Robotnik in North America at the time) steal Little Planet from over Never Lake, chaining it to a mountain and attempting to obtain possession of the Time Stones so he can conquer and manipulate time to his will before being able to take over the world, but not on Sonic's watch! Sonic must zoom from zone to zone to collect those Time Stones whilst also trying to save Amy Rose from Eggman's clutches and destroy his metallic doppelganger Metal Sonic, whom creates plenty of trouble throughout Sonic's adventure. As Sonic speeds to save the day, he must switch between the Past, Present, and Future in an effort to crush Eggman's inventions, and restore every Zone to a good future! With all of this admittedly interesting stuff out of the way, just how good is Sonic CD? Is it worthy of critical acclaim!? Plot Historically, Sonic plots have been known for being either rather barren of driven storytelling (Sonic Heroes) or being extremely complicated and difficult to follow (Shadow the Hedgehog). Sonic CD actually follows a very concise plot in spite of its usage of Time Travel, and it flows well throughout the whole game. I think it's interesting that Sonic can switch from time to time again without the game necessarily feeling "broken" from repeated abuse of those Time Travel posts. I think it's really cute that if you destroy a robot generator in the Past version of a zone, you can eliminate all of that zone's enemies in the Present and beyond. Plus if you destroy the ones found in both acts of a full zone, you get a Good Future for the boss act. Pretty cool! Collecting all seven Time Stones automatically results in a Good Future for the third Zones. Should all Time Stones be collected or should all third acts of a Zone have Good Futures, the player will get the good ending. If neither is done, the player gets the bad ending. It appears that the Time Stones in this game are basically replicas of the Chaos Emeralds, but they're unique in the way that their existence is to allow their user to twist and change time for themselves. These stones are found on Little Planet, which orbits Earth like a moon, and they cause several temporal time issues on the planet. Little Planet is ultimately the same's setting: the game's zones (referred to as "Rounds" in this game for whatever reason) are Palmtree Panic, Collision Chaos, Tidal Tempest, Quartz Quadrant, Wacky Workbench, Stardust Speedway, and Metallic Madness, and they're all stationed on this planet. Something worth noting is that of all these zones, only two aren't urban-based at the Present time, meaning that there's a lot of robotic activity on the planet... fittingly due to Dr. Eggman's motive being to take over it. The Past version of each zone is a prehistoric take, the Bad Future version has the place be rusty and torn apart while being clearly under Eggman's rule, and the Good Future versions are highly urbanized as well but in light, cheerful and beneficial ways. While some of the plot material is very interesting, there's something rather... unrewarding about the "good" ending of the game. In the good ending, Sonic and Amy just escape and the Little Planet is sent back into orbit, while in the bad ending Dr. Eggman just gloats as he gets away with a Time Stone, but not before Sonic shoots him down with a rock. It hardly feels like there's that much of a difference between these endings, and for all the work you have to do with getting all the Time Stones (requiring a lot of precision in finicky bonus zones) or finding all of those animal capsules in the Past time (requiring a lot of time-consuming exploration), it just doesn't feel worth your time. Sonic CD's plot has some fun elements, but I don't really think that what they've done with this game really makes the plot of the game feel worthwhile at all... which is sad because the opening and closing animations of the game are super charming and fun to watch. This Sonic game has a better plot than most titles in the series, and at the very least it's charming and consistent, but there was room for improvement even then. I'm going to be neutral on the story; while it's actually quite well done and there's nothing specifically game-breaking, the effort you need to get the good ending and the lack of a solid feeling of satisfaction for beating the game prevents it from being anything special. Plus there isn't honestly that much to say about the game's setting; Little Planet and Never Lake have really been explained all that well and personally I prefer settings like "Angel Island" and "Station Square" because they have more personality. Then again, those came after this game. Presentation Sonic the Hedgehog CD has very, very good presentation, though it's basically the same as it was in the very first Sonic game and its popular successor, with minor differences in how the Time Limit and Life Counter look. First off, Sonic looks fantastic and all of his little animations are cute and full of personality. The palettes are also incredibly superb in this game, having the best of the original Sonic the Hedgehog series and making extensive and excellent use of palettes, with every place looking vibrant and sticking out very well. It's also impressive how they developed a new background for every single zone's time setting in the game, and it only gets more impressive with Metallic Madness, which contains ten backgrounds altogether: that's one for every act and its possible timezones! Nothing here looks shabby or rushed, just completely perfect pixel art that's responsible for the entrancing beauty of stages like Stardust Speedway and Tidal Tempest! I'm thoroughly impressed at how much they were able to do graphically with this game at the time; the effort especially paid off in the gorgeous, vaporwave-like Special Stages, which look stunningly beautiful for a 1993 stage. If you had to ask me which game handled graphic quality the best in the original Sonic the Hedgehog series, I would honestly pick this game! Controls While Sonic controls just as he should in this game, I honestly have very mixed feelings about how he's handled in this game. With level design that's much more vertical-oriented and trap-filled than what you can find in other Sonic games, Sonic's speed just isn't appropriate here. He's too fast and it's really easy to run into hazards, and even straight pathways found occasionally in the levels are often lined with bumpers or hazards that keep the game's pace rather slow... which feels very wrong for a Sonic game. I'm also not very enthused about how Sonic's spindash was handled in this game; it's very awkward to use due to the inability to charge it up and I just found no use for it, really. The Super Peel-Out looks great in this game, but with no protection against hazards when Sonic's moving as well as the general lack of safe runways to use it on, it's just pretty useless. It's a shame, because I love the animations they did for that move. I can't say the controls are bad, however, merely because Sonic controls as you would want him to... but the level design doesn't cooperate very well with it, which makes his playstyle ineffective at times. However, Stardust Speedway is a near perfect level that I feel makes perfect use of his speed and abilities. Go nuts there! Gameplay Sonic CD is just much too bouncy and frustrating for my own liking! While Palmtree Panic is a perfectly acceptable first level with few flaws, the remaining six zones can become intensely frustrating at times, especially the second zone (Collision Chaos) and the fifth zone (Wacky Workbench). There's way too many things to force and shove you around, taking control from you and just thrusting you from place to place. There are also way too many ways to be set back through a level, and some levels can straight-up force you over the 10-minute time limit if you're not quick enough to recognize small mistakes! I love bouncy zones like Carnival Night Zone for testing your skills in a challenging, menacing manner and Casino Night Zone for just being plain fun, but Collision Chaos has hazards and traps all over the place with bumpers (never a good thing) and it's just never fun to play! I love challenge in a video game, especially in a Sonic title, but Collision Chaos isn't fun or challenging: it's a test of patience, which I feel breaks the pace of a Sonic game by default. Not to mention that awful, awful pinball boss at the end of Collision Chaos, which can force you well over the time limit with how awfully the puzzle of getting up to the boss was designed... The bane of my existence, however, was how Zone 5 and Zone 7 were designed. Wacky Workbench has several floors functioning like extremely powerful bumpers, forcing you upwards through the level. Here's the thing, though: if your platforming isn't precise, you'll have to climb your way back down as you (often) have no other choice but to do such, only to get bounced right back up if you don't land on a specific little platform! In Metallic Madness' second act, if you take the wrong pathway, you'll be forced a good chunk back through the level and be forced to take over little platforming sections all over again! I know Metallic Madness is the final level in Sonic CD, but it's insane to have such obtuse level design that can hinder the player even when they're trying their hardest to not fall into these rather unfairly designed traps. Plus, with the lack of speed found in all the zones except Stardust Speedway, and with the anger-inducing puzzle-and-crusher layouts found everywhere in some of the later levels, it's just... frustrating. Did I mention that keeping your rings for the Bonus Stages or finding places to Time Travel is nearly impossible? There's so little flat room in these levels that it's hard to even get close to getting a good ending! In regards to gameplay, the other classic Sonic games are much better! Even though Knuckles' Chaotix had very bare level design, those zones are the very least weren't absolutely insanely frustrating and were much more forgiving with progression than CD! When compared to the level design of Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 or even the very first game, Sonic CD's level design and gameplay is a total joke. Next! Mechanics Sonic CD retains all the familiar mechanics found in the original game: rings, springs, spike pits, and more, which all work fine and without any issues. The most familiar of the new mechanics, however, is the Time Post. While neat in execution, you need to find a running place to be able to time travel, and you need to retain high speed for 3 seconds to move to the Past or Future. Sounds easy, but there's little ground for that, and let alone 5'' seconds on the original Sega CD incarnation! I do love though that the Past incarnations of each Zone are typically easier and less frustrating due to the lowered amount of mechanical hazards, and that the Bad Future incarnations are tougher with more enemies and hazards (though knowing how many traps there already are in the Present, having more in the Bad Future is HELL). Should the player have 50 rings and make it to the end of a zone, they'll have a chance to go at the Special Stage... well, this is where things go ''really bad. Sonic controls super loosely in these 3D phenomenons, and he must destroy all of the purple UFOs found in these levels in order to gain their Time Stones. Should the player touch the water in these levels, however, they'll lose a LOT of time in EXTREMELY RAPID RECORD TIME and perhaps lose the ability to get the Time Stone at all! It is possible to skip Special Stages to get the good ending by instead destroying the animal capsules found in both acts of each zone, but these are incredibly tough to find because you need to travel to the Past to find them and then look around the entire map without going too far and locking the screen (forcing you to finish the level). This is super frustrating as it can take a lot of your spare time to find these capsules, and in stages like Metallic Madness or Wacky Workbench, you can start kissing your lives goodbye. I don't have to mention how bouncy the game is, I already vented enough about that with the gameplay aspect. Boss Battles Effortless and disgusting. I'm going to keep this short: every boss takes less than 8 hits and are extremely easy or difficult to defeat. The first boss goes down in seconds if you "damage boost" by abusing your invincibility frames to get past its legs, the second boss requires you to make up to a vulnerable Eggman hiding up a stupidly hard pinball machine, the third boss goes down in one hit after you break its bubble-made shield that keeps you alive, the fourth boss is just a weak fight to stay alive, the fifth fight doesn't even make any sense, the sixth boss is the only good one because its a race against Metal Sonic, and the last boss is extremely pathetic in every way. No, I'm not going to clarify anything. These bosses are real trash: the worst in the series by a large margin. If you really want to believe my word, go find a YouTube video about them. Difficulty Keeping this short too: this game very obviously infuriates me on an astronomical level. I already mentioned the game is bouncy and ridiculously tough in several regards, and Sonic's controls once again do not mesh well with the gameplay. The core game is honestly easy if you're good at the gameplay and challenges, but good luck if you want to get the good ending in either fashion, and especially good luck if you want to both make Good Futures in every act and have all the Time Stones in your possession. Even Sonic the Hedgehog 1's Labyrinth Zone would object to how ridiculously gimmicky stages like Metallic Madness were. I seriously don't get this game's acclaim, especially with its absolutely problematic zone format. Is it just nostalgia? Never mind, I suppose I shouldn't really care because I'm going to get a bolt up my ass in the comments. Maybe someone will be nice to me and just stuff it full of Oreos lol Music As per tradition with Sonic games, Sonic the Hedgehog CD has some kickass music. Hell, there are two separate soundtracks, both of which are quite high-quality: a Japanese version and a USA version. The former is much more energetic and Sonic-like in style, giving the zones a lot of vibrant personality to them, while the latter is less focused on the zones and more on the dire situation of the story, capturing its mood perfectly. Whichever you prefer is up to you, but as someone who loves story-driven soundtracks, the USA one is mine of choice. Please don't start a war in the comments section about which is better, because this is my opinion, after all. I love these soundtracks so much and I'm glad they influenced the OST of 2017's Sonic Mania, they're incredible and worthy of all the praise they get. Bonus shout-outs to the vocal themes; "Sonic Boom", "You Can Do Anything", and "Cosmic Eternity" are all great! Too bad the game these OSTs are paired with isn't all that good. Replayability You can probably guess what I have to say about this game in regards to how "replayable" it is. No, the collectibles aren't worth your time, and the good ending isn't worthy of being achieved. There's no ranking system really either, but there are some little catches and niches that other Sonic games don't possess: Time Trails and little bonuses. If you get good enough times in Time Trails, you can unlock some cute things like the D.A. Garden and some little animation-related things. I wouldn't exactly say they're worth it, but if you really wanna see that extra content, I guess going through these levels is worth it. And as you start to get the hang of these levels, they'll probably stop being such a bother to you. End-Game Appeal Frustrating in almost every regard, with otherwise fine controls not syncing up well with the vertically-oriented trap-filled zones, and poor rewards for beating the game, getting all the Time Stones, etc. just being particularly bothersome. The difficulty spikes are too high while the bosses are immensely pathetic or excessively challenging, there's way too much bouncing around for personal comfort, and a lack of a sense of accomplishment for beating anything in this game has made me reluctant to find even nice things to say about it. Only the music and presentation are actually consistently good in this game, which is a shame because they don't even stand out that much when compared to some other Sonic games. As you might have figured, I don't like this game. Given the game is critically acclaimed, I have to question why the game is looked upon so positively. To each their own, but I found Sonic CD to be an immensely flawed classic experience that holds almost no replay value to me. I only streamed it twice because of meme OSTs I had that I wanted my friends to laugh over. Other than that, I haven't touched the game in a long while, and have no desire to. FINAL RATING Aside from Knuckles' Chaotix, the worst attempt at a Classic Sonic game in the '90s era, this is my least favorite game in the classic Sonic series. This is no hidden gem or a diamond in the rough; it is a disaster of a Sonic game that ultimately does not top itself over any other game at its time. If you had to pick any other Sonic game to play from this era, please play Sonic 3 or at least Sonic 2, or even Sonic 1 if you haven't played that game yet somehow. As a hardcore fan of Sonic, I really don't feel there's that much interesting offered in this game. I will, however, thank its existence simply for introducing Metal Sonic to the light (I don't care about Amy) and for some of the zones. Stardust Speedway is my favorite zone in the game and among my top five in spite of my thoughts about this game. Hardcore Experience Hardcore players will probably not mind the difficulty found within Sonic CD or all of its little frustrating quirks, but I imagine this game can be a good turn-off for casual players due to its needlessly complex design. Hardcore players may find it interesting to go for the good ending with the high difficulty involved with doing such, but softcore players may be turned off by them. It's recommended for the hardcore Sonic audience; if you aren't a fan of Sonic, this game wont change your mind about the series. REVIEW ARCHIVE SEARCH FOR THE BEST / WORST Hover over the icons for these characters' names and my aspects on the different elements of each Sonic game. #'SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 & KNUCKLES' #'SONIC 3D BLAST' #'SONIC COLORS (Wii)' #'SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG' #'SONIC THE HEDGEHOG CD' #'SONIC AND THE SECRET RINGS' #'KNUCKLES' CHAOTIX' Category:Blog posts